In a ceremony held at London’s Royal Society on 3rd October, Hannah Lynn won the 2018 Kindle Storyteller Award for her novel The Afterlife of Walter Augustus, taking home not only a £20,000 cash prize, but also a marketing campaign to support the book, access to a mentor and the opportunity to have the book translated.

In its second year as a UK contest, the Award received over 10,000 submissions across more than 100 country codes, with customer feedback (including sales, pages read and reviews) used to whittle the entries down to a shortlist of five.

The ceremony was opened by Amazon UK Country Manager, Doug Gurr, before Chair of Judges and books editor at the Metro, Claire Allfree introduced the shortlist. The winner was then announced by judge and celebrity ambassador, author and TV personality, Lorraine Kelly.

Winner Hannah Lynn commented: “I can’t quite believe I’ve won the Kindle Storyteller Award and it’s all a bit overwhelming! It’s an honour to have been chosen and winning the award has inspired me to keep writing and to enjoy it as much as possible. I’m not sure what I’ll spend the prize money on yet but I have promised my daughter I would buy her two Julia Donaldson books!”

Lorraine Kelly said: “The Afterlife of Walter Augustus is wonderfully well written and I thoroughly enjoyed this creative read.”

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